Lonesome Conscious Worldby S Shane Thomas

Conscious awareness came in its earliest moments of
existence. Smaller celestial bodies still coalesced in the space around it.
Rock and ice constantly smashed its molten surface in the first days. Perhaps
one such asteroid brought the sense of self, and perhaps the unique commingling
caused the phenomenon. The planet became aware first of its own formation and
contentment at the mere sensation of being captivated its mind for thousands of
years. Only when its surface cooled, and land masses rose above placid waters
did the notion of other living things occur.

The thinking world stretched its awareness to the nearest
object that exerted gravity upon it, but the lonely moon could not reciprocate
greeting. Never having encountered life outside itself, notions of death and
inanimate objects remained unknown. Awareness probed further out until it
encountered a handful of its brothers. Life was confirmed under the swirling
gas of some and the warm rock of others, life but no sense of oneself or
others. The thinking world grew to understand the concept of awareness and named
itself Illume. It reveled in the torrents of the mighty star, whose chaos and energy
blazed beyond understanding, yet acknowledgement of Illume’s presence never
occurred.

Uncounted years passed. Illume delighted in the presence of
plant and animal life on its surface and the depths of its oceans. The lonely
world came to understand that life alone did not signify awareness of self and
the capacity for abstract thought.

A tiny metal husk approached Illume, and the sensation it
caused broke the world from its deep meditation. Tiny thoughts flitted about in
frenzy. Not one but thousands. Thoughts, awareness, and ideas so rapid and so
alien that Illume idled in stunned contemplation, perhaps beings within the
metal husk possessed awareness.

A sliver of the husk slid onto Illume’s surface and a
handful of the thinking beings scurried about for an instant of the lonely
planet’s awareness. Illume reached out to them in a slow, clumsy attempt to
greet its visitors. Before a thought could be shared each being had thousands
of its own thoughts, and the entire group returned to their sliver and back
inside the metal husk.

Illume delighted as the entire husk slid through its
atmosphere and came to rest upon its surface. Years passed as the lonely planet
contemplated how to commune with the tiny, rapid, and brilliant colonists from
other stars.

******

A girl screamed in horror at the sight of her grandfather
who seemed to rise from his grave. She dropped the flowers and bolted out of
the cemetery and all the way to the nearest Colonial Security Force station. Her
late grandfather turned his head and watched her run. He had been enriched and
revitalized by Illume’s soil and its life essence restored by the lonely
planet. When the human colony’s first funeral deposited the man into soil,
Illume restored his fading awareness and over a few weeks the late man and
lonely world learned to speak with one another. No longer human, the
grandfather, consisted mostly of soil, a mound from the waist down. His head
twisted on a man’s torso and an arm pointed at two uniformed men who rushed
toward them with guns in hand.

“I told you this would startle her,” the grandfather said.

“I can be patient,” Illume replied through the grandfather’s
mouth. “I’ve hoped for companions a long time.”